Thanks also to Travis County District Court Judge David Wahlberg, who courageously ordered the Travis County clerk not to rely on “the unconstitutional Texas prohibitions against same-sex marriage as a basis for not issuing a marriage license.” He issued the order despite the stay of Judge Garcia’s order because Sarah Goodfriend underwent surgery and chemotherapy last year for ovarian cancer and her health is uncertain. The couple has been together for 30 years and raised two daughters. If one were to be hospitalized with a life-threatening condition while they were not married, the other would have no say in medical decisions.

And then there are those days that challenge even a First Amendment/Free Speech absolutist like me. Freedom Fighter and uneducated state legislator Molly White (could her last name be any more appropriate?), pictured, couldn’t be in Austin, Texas to celebrate Texas Muslim Capitol Day. But she left instructions (on her Facebook page!) for the staff [...]

I’m not a big one to trade in conspiracy theories, but this all begs for an explanation. Saudi Bomb Threat to U.S. Army Post A Saudi in the U.S. on a student visa (now where have we heard that one before?), who prompted a four-hour lockdown at a U.S. Army post in Texas when he [...]

Attorneys representing Denton, Texas, the first city to ban hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in state history, have issued rebuttals to the two lawsuits filed against Denton the day after the fracking ban was endorsed by voters on election day. Responding to lawsuits brought by attorneys with intimate Bush family connections — with complaints coming from both the Texas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas [...]

Open enrollment for obtaining affordable health insurance to take effect in 2015 begins today. Even though I have an undergraduate degree in Biology and an associates degree in a medical field, as well as a reasonable grasp of reading and writing, my attempts to navigate previous versions of ACA enrollment websites proved futile. Knowing that the government website was problematic in the beginning, and being directed to return on November 15, I was eager to get an early start this morning, to review my options, and sign up for affordable health care at the earliest opportunity.

This is the enduring image of Scott Panetti, a severely mentally ill man on death row in Texas: a paranoid schizophrenic wearing a TV-Western cowboy costume; on trial for his life; insisting on defending himself without counsel; attempting to subpoena the Pope, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus Christ; and raising an insanity defense. At one point, he cross-examined his own alter-ego, Sarge, answering his own questions on-stand, in a different voice.

Mr. Panetti’s pro se performance was an abomination and his trial was a mockery of the criminal justice system. But if Texas has its way, Mr. Panetti will be executed on December 3, 2014.

In her latest piece, Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones sheds light on the case of Scott Panetti—a death row prisoner who Texas wants to execute despite a decades-long history of severe mental illness and serious questions remaining about his competency to be executed.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Americans’ right to choose an abortion, but that choice is meaningless if someone can’t access a legal abortion clinic or legally obtain the abortion pill. Decades of the anti-abortion movement’s attacks on abortion access depend on this, and it’s a strategy which may have just won a major victory.

The challenge of accessing abortion just became far more difficult for millions of Texans.

Ron Honberg of the National Association of Mental Illness begins his recent op-ed for the National Law Journal describing a situation so strange that one assumes it is fiction:

“A person diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia is accused of murdering his in-laws. He insists on defending himself without counsel and wears a TV-Western cowboy costume while on trial for his life. He attempts to subpoena the Pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ. He rambles incomprehensibly, scares the jurors by pointing an imaginary rifle at them, and he believes the judge is a devil worshiper.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry, now sporting glasses perhaps to overcome questions concerning low intelligence, announced he will be sending 1000 Texas National Guard soldiers to help secure Texas’ border with Mexico as part of “Operation Strong Safety.”